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Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Olympic Training Center

So I’ve wanted to create this post for a while now after such an amazing
experience. I was always a dream of mine to go to the Olympic Training Center
as an athlete. I’ve also always wanted to go to Colorado after hearing so many
people talk about how beautiful it is. Before I start, I have a lot of people
to thank for making this trip happen. My coach Matt Russ really talked me up to
USA Triathlon and made them spark some interest in me. It meant a lot to me
that he would put the time in to do those things for me. It definitely makes me
feel like I have a lot of support. I have to thank USA Triathlon, and most
importantly, Barb Lindquist, for seeing enough potential in me to want to bring
me out to the OTC. When Barb called me to offer me a spot in the camp I
couldn’t believe it. I called my parents right after and they were so excited
for me. It seemed like just a few months ago I didn’t really have many
impressive results and now I’d be going to the OTC for a bit. All of the hard
work must be paying off.

When my plane finally arrived in Colorado Springs I looked out the window
and saw the beautiful mountain ranges with Pike’s Peak towering on top. For me,
it was an amazing sight. I hopped on a shuttle and finally arrived at the OTC.
I was finally able to meet Barb in person and was excited to meet all the other
guys at the camp who turned out to be a really awesome group.

Pike's Peak

Riding up some mountains

We were incredibly busy all week. We would spend most of the day going
from one training session to the next. The amount of instruction we had in the
pool was really incredible. To be able to have that kind of attention day in
and day out would pay huge dividends, especially in a sport like swimming. The
altitude was also pretty noticeable to me. Every swim set felt like a hypoxic
set. It’s easy to see how altitude could be a huge help in endurance sports.
Some of the riding was also incredible. The Garden of the Gods was wild. Riding
around with scenery like that made it impossible to take the smile off my face.
Riding up a climb and looking at the views really just made me laugh about how
amazing it was.

I could get into all the fine details, but the bottom line is—we swam a
lot, we biked a lot, and we ran a lot. We worked on our technique all week and
found things to work on to make ourselves better athletes, and that’s what it’s
all about. I came out of the camp more excited and more motivated than I have
ever been before. It was a taste of the triathlon lifestyle that I want to live
for a long, long time.